


From Golden Fire

by WindwiseWords



Category: Warframe
Genre: Blood, Blood and Injury, Father-Son Relationship, Fire, Orbiter, Outer Space, The Void, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2019-10-05 14:36:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17326847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WindwiseWords/pseuds/WindwiseWords
Summary: It all died to his blade, but as fire tends to do, it raged on despite efforts to cut it off. An ember of war survives.





	1. From the Flames

**Author's Note:**

> A pair of characters of mine and a story I've been sitting on a long time.

Pieces of the ship crumbled around him, standing in the midst of the bodies. Another ship attempting to enter the void, attempting to steal secrets that would only cause pain and destruction across the system.

Valkyr, dispatched for his ferocity and aggression, blocked the ship from entering the void with archwing. When they began to fire, he punched into the hull and tore his way through the ship, now standing with the blood of many streaked across his frame. Corpus, or grineer, or anyone else; it mattered not who, just that they were dead and he could chew up the corpses.

The ship fell apart, some of his damage entering the hull collapsing important rooms. With the engineers dead, nobody could stabilize the ship. Fires broke out in the walls, on the ceiling, taking the golden color of void radiation he felt nothing of other than the soft call to go back and finish an end left untied.

Ends untied kept popping up, hearing a shrill wailing of agony. He was a murderer, a war machine made to destroy, and yet he would not leave anyone he could find alive to go mad and die in the void. Sealing the jaw of his helmet together, the blue-turned-red warframe meandered toward the screaming, picking his way around debris and fires.

The closer he got the faster he moved, something distant lurching in his chest. Among the golden flames, a boy lay with his hands over his shoulder, desperately trying to put out the fire that tried to consume him. His hands were bloodied and his back and chest torn by the sharp fire, not a slow burn, the void taking another from this world so painfully.

A flash of agony tore into the warframe, something he should know, remember, think on… But his mind flashed too fast to hold onto it and the agony pierced his skull. A horrible screeched echoed through the open room, some kind of living quarters.

The boy looked up. And reached out. A child in his own agony with fire-dried tears at his red eyes reached for the monster that tore apart his home, and Valkyr felt his mind calm, if only enough to react. In a swift dash he swooped the boy up into an arm, holding him like a kubrow pup under one arm, and bolted for extraction. The twisting jumps and rolls aside, the boy managed to keep up with what was going on and clung to his savior, his parents’ murderer, his golden angel and red devil.

The blood of this innocent boy stained his warframe, but Valkyr felt nothing about it. This time he’d fix the child, no more than a few years in age. This time he’d protect what he was meant to protect.

Upon arriving inside the orbiter, Valkyr shook off his sooty body and of course Ordis complained he was again making a bloody mess of the place, before his scanners recognized. A non-operator entity, and yet… Void-Touched. In his pain the boy passed out.

The next days were spent trying to fix him, moving between Cetus and Fortuna and any other colony that had any kind of medicines or healers. The warframe said nothing, but upon the day that the boy roused from his dying sleep, three days later in the living quarters on a shelf-turned-bed, Valkyr found his voice.

It was hard, grating a hiss and rolling low into a growl, but he sat the boy up and put a cup to his lips. “Waterrrr…” He managed, and the boy took it with no need for any other confirmation. He’d drink poison if Valkyr offered it. He’d have to teach him to be more wary.

When the cup was empty, Valkyr knelt back down by the bed and stared at him, head cocked to the side. The boy hesitantly copied the posture. When the frame’s head went one way, his copied the other. A soft giggle rose from the child, and he reached out for Valkyr.

Soft fleshy hands still wrapped in bandages touched his helm, the rounded nose, and even the points. Valkyr had never seen one brave enough to put hands on his frame; weapons struck him often, but this soft touch did not. The sensation was odd and so he pulled back slightly, only to find himself catching a teetering child.

The boy rolled over in his lap, and grabbed up on his chest, and just smiled. Resilliance of a child. Valkyr scooped him up and stood, placing him up on the diorama center of the living quarters that was otherwise very bare. A model of earth, his favorite place to roam. The child stuck his feet in the water and laughed with a squeal. “Splash!”

Valkyr was doused with water and snarled, shaking himself like a kubrow. The boy startled, and rather than looking terrified, only shied back. “’m sorry…” He had no words for him, but just dropped the aggressive stance. There was a long silence. “’m Marco.”

Marco. Marco… “Mmmarrrcoh.” The boy smiled, enthusiastically nodding. “Valkyrr.” That word he knew well.

“Vah..Vallhkeir.” The boy went, then shook his head and looked at his hands. That’s when he noticed he was bandaged almost head to toe. His little body went rigid, and Valkyr smelled the salt of tears. Memories would come, like the tides on the shore of the Plains. Valkyr heard him call out for a dead father. His own memories flashed, and he wondered which of the crew was the man that sired this child.

Valkyr let him scream until his voice was hoarse, and his body was wracked with tired shivers and soaked with tears. There would be no point in defending him from his memories. They would give him the rage with which to fight. The same anger that boiled in his own chest.

A soft hand reached for him, and without thinking his metallic clawed one encompassed it. In a swift motion, Valkyr pulled the boy into his chest, and stroked his hair as other tenno did to his helm sometimes. His claws pricked skin, but Marco didn’t mind. He just hid in his armor, pulled at whatever he could reach, and sighed with relief.

“Dad…” He whimpered.

Valkyr stayed silent a moment. “Dad.” He echoed in that hissing whisper.

The boy looked up, eyes gleaming, then nestled back into the hard armor. His hand stopped clawing and just held on, and Valkyr was left to wonder whether the calm in his chest was natural or if this Marco could affect him. Regardless of what, he put the boy back in his bed when he fell asleep, left him water and Maprico fruit, and headed off to prepare for the next ship to slaughter.

The angel may sleep, but the demon was always on the hunt. Ordis promised to watch the boy, then launched the drop pod into the side of the ship. Little did Valkyr know, two chubby hands stuck to the window of the living quarters, watching the pod go.

“Dad.” Marco murmured, then went back to sleep against the window.


	2. Nightmares in Red

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He knew nightmares, and so did the boy... But at least one of them could sleep soundly now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a series. Sorry.

He slept with no bed, no soft cushion, but in ice and cold. It was the only thing that slowed his racing mind enough to achieve true resting state. Never though did he leave reality enough not to hear an attack, an alert, a call from the Lotus…

Tonight a piercing shriek cut the dark of the ship and Ordis flashed the lights on and instantly began to thaw him out. He heard the warbly burble of the cephalon demanding him to take care of something, catching the tail end as the pod he used burst open.

“—That wretched brat!—Poor child… Operator, he is having some form of bad memory dump. His vitals are off the charts.”

Valkyr shook the moisture that collected on his frame and dragged himself to the living quarters. Bad memories. He knew of them well. It was why he nearly froze himself to sleep, to not think…

When he reached his quarters, the boy had woken himself up. Marco, the boy pulled from the fires of the Void. No wonder he had night terrors, mere handfuls of days after all that trauma. When he first saw the door open he wailed and clutched at something… A noggle. Of Harrow of all warframes. Valkyr found them amid some crafty Grineer rooms, usually broken and used for target practice for small darts, but some were intact. Others were made by those that appreciated them, and these he purchased because he enjoyed seeing his team among his orbiter.

When Valkyr stepped in from the shadows, the lights flashed on and suddenly Marco jumped up and abandoned the noggle for Valkyr’s leg. He stood there uncertainly before reaching to pick the boy up.

“It was so s-scary…” Marco whimpered through snotty tears. Valkyr could feel Ordis holding a comment, silently willing him to continue holding it back lest the boy grow more upset. “All was fire, and red, and everyone was gone!” Valkyr felt no guilt. The ship needed to be removed lest they died in worst ways and possibly tamper with things beyond their knowledge.

Valkyr stood holding and listening to the terrified boy sniffle, wondering what he could do to calm down a fussy human toddler. His eyes drifted back to the Harrow noggle, haphazardly on its side, and then to the window. With a motion he lowered his hand and Ordis killed the lights. Valkyr brought him to the window, showing him the stars. At first he was terrified, not liking space anymore, but as the ship moved, space turned into blue and gold pillars of the Void. Lightning would dance between the charges, and somewhere in that mess was his ship.

Marco made no connection, but watched the clouds slowly form, break down, and blow away. “It’s so pretty… What is it?”

Valkyr rapped a claw on the glass. “Vvoid.” He gritted out. “Must… Nnnot go…” He couldn’t stress that enough. That this child would be taken and broken further by the void. “Bad… for… you…”

“But…” He pouted. “We were going there…” And then he stiffened, new tears, new memories. He began to breathe rapidly and Valkyr had no idea what to do so he just tucked the child against his chest and neck, under his chin, and rumbled.

Marco clasped at his armor and hid in the rough-smooth suit, finding where tiny fingers could fit. Valkyr could feel their prints, unique to each one, some burned away. He was still so damaged… Marco found comfort in that armor, the breaths slowing to normal.

A long silence with Valkyr holding a human boy and the human boy clinging to Valkyr followed, watching the shadows dance between the clouds of blue-grey-gold. Marco’s breathing evened out. “He is asleep.” Ordis spoke directly to Valkyr’s helmet. Valkyr went and put the boy back in the bed, setting the Harrow statuette up next to him. Maybe it would help him sleep somehow, but it was far from cuddly.

Solutions, Valkyr thought, heading not back to his cryopod but to Navigation. He turned through a hundred missions left by the Lotus, a thousand more bits of data Ordis picked up on, and finally gave up when the solar cycle turned around to day. Marco slept through most of these days, still healing, but woke for breakfast.

Pulling himself out of the kneel, Valkyr headed to a cryobox to get more fruit and fish, letting Ordis decide how best to cook it. The fruit he brought to Marco, and he paused at the door, listening.

Motioning Ordis to show him a feed from inside the room, Valkyr’s vision halved to see the image. Marco had found all the noggles, set them up on the central earthy display, and was playing out a scene with them. He put them in teams of three, one off, Valkyr thought, and seemed to be playing that the Warframes were all going exploring to find the ‘Void Wiggly.’ Upon wondering what that was, it apparently was the Ayatan he left on display on the center table.

Marco ever so lightly touched it with the figures, letting Excalibur explore it first. That was when he opened the door. Marco startled, putting a small hand on the statue to not let it fall, then whipped around to stare at Valkyr guiltily.

Valkyr cocked his head, then offered out a stem of three fruits. Marco shuffled over to take them, unskilledly peeling the skin off with slow fingers. “I won’t touch again.” It seemed important and pretty, but Valkyr just waved a hand and grunted, going over to examine the scene.

He carefully moved some of the noggles, setting them up into the usual teams of four. Valkyr, Rhino, Harrow, Oberon. Trinity, Nova, Nekros, Hydroid. Mag, Excalibur, Loki, Saryn. When he got to that one, Marco came over with sticky fruit hands and washed them in the water of the set, not that it mattered being self-filtering, and pointed.

“What’s that called?” He asked, taking another fruit when prompted.

“Essxcaliburrr. Swordsman…” He explained, hoping that’d be enough. It wasn’t.

“Is he like you?” A hand patted his armor and he jumped a bit. “All tough?”

“Not… Tough. Not weak.” Valkyr put a fruit in both his hands. “Balancsssed.” Marco hefted the fruits, then offered one back and Valkyr peeled it for him with deft claws, carved the pit out, and offered the fleshy pulp to him. He took it and ate it with a smile, then pointed to the Valkyr noggle.

“What about this one? She’s got claws like you!”

Valkyr tensed a bit and picked up the bobblehead. “Isss… Valkyr…” Or would have been. But not all Corpus testing was successful. Some patients were too violent. Some got out. Some killed all the staff and fled, others were sealed away for later testing and forgotten.

Marco frowned and took the statue, touching the ‘eye’ in the center. “But you have cat ears. She doesn’t. And she’s a she.” Marco had decisively decided Valkyr was male. “There’s more than one?”

“Handful.” He hefted the other fruit, taken from Marco’s hand.

“Oh.” He glanced around. “But it’s just us here? And the nice voice.”

“Indeed, small Marco!” Ordis chirped, nearly scaring the boy off the seat. “It is only Operator: Valkyr and you. Though I appreciate being included!”

Marco smiled slowly and went searching around the room. “Where are you?”

“I am everywhere. I am the Orbiter, small Marco!” Marco froze and snapped his stare down to his feet. Then he looked at the fish tanks, empty, on the wall and hugged one. “Oh…” Ordis had no idea how to respond. “This… Display… Is appreciated!” A low rumble of warning was all he needed to keep in line.

Valkyr handed the last peeled fruit to Marco, leaving him to eat that, and moving to where Ordis offered the cooked fish off the Foundry. How he did it, Valkyr only questioned if it was safe. He sniffed at the fish, deemed it edible, and turned around—

To find Marco had followed him with wide eyes. Over the last few days he rarely if ever left the living quarters, but today he grew bold. “Whoa…” He murmured, looking around at all the tech. Valkyr just offered him the plate of fish, and he came over to eat the rather well-cooked meat, sitting right there on the floor. “Your ship is neat.” He stated between bites, and pointed at the Incubator. “What’s that?”

Valkyr had no good way of explaining in a few words, so he merely passed by the question. Ordis picked up the tab. “That is an Incubator. The Operator may choose to create a— **messy, slobbering mutt** —Kubrow or Kavat with it. The Codex has images, if the Operator wishes you to see them.”

Valkyr nodded and Marco glowed as the ramp lowered and let them both up into Navigation. Valkyr tapped away to pull up images of Kubrow and Kavat, and Marco melted with a soft squeal. “They’re so cuddly!” Marco smiled, enamored with the many images and quickly figuring out how to scroll through.

Valkyr kept an eye on him so he didn’t find anything gruesome in there. Or anything about Warframes he shouldn’t know. Watching Marco fawn and coo over the animals hit him with a realization: Marco was lonely. Valkyr ran off for hours at a time, and Ordis was not a good conversation partner. He played with the noggles and had those horrible dreams because he was all alone with a killing machine and a half-broken cephalon.

Valkyr strode away to navigation and kneeled, the Starmap fly around him. Marco gasped and rushed over to sit next to him, giggling as Valkyr let the system zip by. He’d have to educate him, but for now… He was off to Fortuna. “Course plotted, Operator!” And the stars grew thin as they zipped through the planets. The look on Marco’s face was priceless.

 

Marco could not come among the fumes and dangers of Fortuna Debt Colony, but seemed content to nap some more. Valkyr was an avid hunter, and it took but hours for him to capture all of what he needed for trade. Upon returning to the ship, he carried in a metal crate to the living quarters, and in ornate Orokin script left Marco with his name on the top. He needed a bath, coated in the gore of Corpus troops that disturbed his hunts. The mess never bothered him before, but Marco may find it scary. And that bothered him greatly.

 

About an hour later, while Valkyr was meditating in the back room among the void radiation, he heard an excited squeal. He faded back from his fast-paced mind and got up to go see Marco’s reaction to the gift.

Floofs, is what they called them, small stuffed creatures. And Valkyr spent all his existing credit with The Business to secure at least one of most of the creatures. Mostly pobbers, some other creatures. Marco had taken to the Delicate Pobber, petting the soft fuzz and giggling wildly. As soon as Valkyr came in to lean on the doorframe Marco jumped up and showed it to him.

“They’re so soft! Thank you!” And he went back to examining each one.

 

Hours later, after Valkyr got a thorough lecture on how to arrange each floof, Marco fell asleep cuddling a Virmink and surrounded by the rest. He looked… Peaceful. Valkyr suddenly felt like hunting was a better use of his time. Returning to his cryopod, the warframe hesitated before accepting his colder, less cuddly ‘bed’ and falling asleep.

In the cycle of rest, the lights flashed on then off, a Delicate Pobber placed just inside the door to keep watch for the nightmares…


	3. Viscera Inevitability

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Valkyr knew he'd find out after some time. He'd been careful, but fate has a funny way of ramming into your side and knocking you out of alignment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not my most popular works, but I'm glad to see some kudos! Thanks for reading!

The speed at which Marco grew amazed him. Not only in the sense that the wounds no longer marred his small body, but that he grew about a centimeter in his first month of being there. Maybe it was the food, or perhaps higher oxygen in the ship, reasoned Ordis. Valkyr just assumed he grew fast. Darvo was around 105, and still young, but this boy was perhaps no more than a handful of years. How fast did humans grow? Did they all reach the towering height of Alad V someday? Probably not, given the Ostrons…

Valkyr contemplated this while sharpening the edges of his Lesion. Marco sat nearby, watching with reverent eyes and holding his pobber plush. “One day I’ll get one too.” He babbled. “And then I can help you do your job!” Valkyr paused, then continued with a laser-guided tool, brushing it back and forth over the blades to restructure them to peak condition.

 

His job.

The boy knew not what he did, nor did he care to tell him, but inevitability came one day in the form of an attack by the Grustrag Three. While normally he’d flay them open and harvest them for rarer parts, today he was carting more precious cargo: a catalyst blueprint. While he questioned no longer where Ordis got his information, he abided the Cephalon’s suggestions and left in a hurry. The Three could not get this, lest they use it for widespread chaos and destruction. Plus he could use one himself.

Of course other Grineer threw themselves between the target and the exit, and were slashed down by Valkyr’s Lesion, so perfectly sharpened but an hour earlier. Sprayed with red and flecked with shrapnel of bone from the impact, he made it to extraction with effort. He was far beyond their power, but numbers were a different kind of power. He was one, they were infinite.

The orbiter docked and he got in with the same grace as always, mentally checking the time and relaying command to lock Marco in the room. “I cannot do that Operator. He has put himself in the receiving dock.” Valkyr took pause in thoughts, realizing what this meant. Inevitability. Like stars’ births and deaths.

When he left the darkness of the receiving tube into the dim light, he was a monster. He saw the fear in Marco’s eyes, his ‘dad’ dripping red and covered in viscera. He began to back up, clutching his favorite pobber plush, using it to protect his chest and soft belly. What Valkyr expected was for him to run away. What happened is that he looked up, seeking Ordis with a soft whine.

“What’s wrong with Dad?” Marco learned early that while he could talk at Valkyr, an answer of words rarely came. Valkyr made a low rumbling, and slowly knelt down. His weapons he shed to the side, and he put both knees down. He was exhausted, air heaving through his twisted lungs, and he felt alive.

“Operator: Valkyr has minor damages. If you are referring to his state of— **disgusting—** disgusting attire, he was sent to retrieve a valuable piece of Orokin technology from the Grineer. Scans show at least forty different decay rates of small units, and three—” The Cephalon cut off at Valkyr’s snarl. Marco jumped and backed to the wall, nervous and wary.

It stung deep, somewhere in a heart that was far from what it once resembled, but a heart… Valkyr slowly got up and left tracks to the washroom, a small space made for simply rinsing up. Marco followed him along, keeping a distance and peeking in the door as hot water rinsed the red to pink and pink to clear. Valkyr shook like an animal, glancing to Marco. He knew Ordis washed the boy from time to time. Rather, Ordis locked him in the space until he cleaned properly. Valkyr never considered doing it himself.

But Marco set his jaw, and left his pobber in the small cabinet with a few towels, and stripped to the underwraps commonly worn by Ostrons as ‘underwear.’ He wandered over and pointed at the shelf. “Soap. Ordis says I have to use it.” Of course Valkyr never did, being that grinding a hard, chalky bar across his frame left more streaks of white to claw out of seams. He took the bar down and handed it to the child, who unceremoniously mushed it into his growing hair. Valkyr took this time to pluck bone pieces out of seams, carve ooze away from the gaps, and overall make a new mess of the shower floor.

Marco tried not to stare. “Do you really hurt people?” Valkyr worked a bone piece free of his side and nodded. “Are they bad people?” Valkyr hesitated and shook his head, then nodded. Some of them were, not all. Sometimes he killed for reason, and sometimes just to kill. Marco went silent. “Were those bad people?” Valkyr was nodding before Marco finished, and knelt down to show him the tiny bit of tech that he stole from them. A small disk that fit inside a reactor, giving the components the recipe for behavior. Without it, you could build a thousand reactors and never have one work. Marco stared at the small golden disk and tilted his head, then went back to washing. He mushed the bar against his chest, taking care on the scarring along his shoulder.

Golden lines trailed across his flesh in the scars. Valkyr would have to teach him to hide such markings, as many would want to test on him. As he examined Marco, the boy lathered up his hands and went to scrubbing his ears.

“Ordis says you’re important. Are the people you hurt, do they do bad things?” Marco tried to reason in his small mind that Valkyr was still the ‘good guy.’ Valkyr shrugged; sometimes yes, sometimes no. Sometimes it was just a Corpus tech minding his own business. Sometimes a Grineer scorpion just sharpening her machete. But they would one day be a threat, so he took them out at the base.

 

Valkyr killed the water after a while, and after Ordis deemed them both sanitary, and shook himself while Marco toweled off. At the boy’s insistence he faced the wall to change into dry wraps, and once he was wrapped in a towel with his pobber, Valkyr offered his clawed hand. Marco hesitated, then took it with determination. Valkyr wouldn’t hurt him.

Would he?

The boy wasn’t sure. But Valkyr led him to the front of the ship, up to the Codex, and began to flip through pictures. Warframes, redacting information that Marco didn’t need. But there were others of his kind, other Valkyr much more hostile, and some more tame. He showed many pictures that were bloody but no faces, no people. Just death as an idea. Marco caught on and hid in his pobber.

Valkyr flipped to Grineer, similarly gory ideas, all of them equal or worse than those Marco had seen. In any parents’ minds, this was not child friendly, but Valkyr knew no better and Marco had to accept the way his life would be with Valkyr.

Marco frowned and reached for ‘up’ as he called it, and Valkyr picked him up to put him on the consul with his delicate pobber. “So they hurt, so you hurt them?” Valkyr held up the disk again. “And steal from them? Isn’t that wrong?” Valkyr shrugged in a ‘probably, yes’ context and turned to head back down the ramp.

The foundry took the disk and began to construct for him. Marco watched it work and smiled as the arm zapped and moved across the table. He then frowned. “Do you have a lot of weapons?” Valkyr glanced at him and then at the foundry. Marco shuffled. “Could I have one? If there’s bad people, and they get in here…”

Ordis chimed in. “That has happened once and Ordis— **ejected them into the vacuum of—** removed them. There is no chance of this occurring again. I hide us well, child Marco. And Operator: Valkyr would never allow harm to come to you or this orbiter!”

Valkyr grunted, nodding. One day Marco would meet pain, but not for a long time. Marco considered this and pointed at the foundry, raising his arm with the pobber in the air. “I’ll get one someday! Maybe I can… Go with you sometime. When you go to the colonies. I can see them from the windows.”

For the first time, Valkyr considered that Marco may need more space to roam. A careful list in his head of spaces deemed ‘safe’ were short; a few spaces on Earth, and one on Venus. He never considered it, never wanted to run the risk of Marco seeing him kill, but since he knew now…

Valkyr gathered the boy up and took him to the living quarters, setting him on the bed. After searching through the various plush animals, he handed him a white-breasted virmink and a sunny pobber. With crude motion, he acted out how the virmink hunted the pobber, and brought it back to its family. Marco looked in awe and confused. Valkyr gestured between the hunting virmink floof and himself, then the other and Marco.

“I know, you can bring back stuff I need.” Marco smiled. “But I wanna see a real pobber! And… And maybe other Operators. Like you!” He bounced excitedly. “And play in the white powder! And the sand!” Valkyr leaned back a bit and then let out a wheezy sigh. Marco frowned. “It’s too dangerous?”

Words were so hard… “Nnnot… Alwayssss…” He stated carefully. “Take… Someday…” But that was not today, not when he still showed signs of his injuries. Marco gathered up his plushes and nodded, accepting the answer. Such a behaved boy, never throwing fits… Of course when your dad was a clawed, seven foot tall machine of war, you rarely did such a thing.

Valkyr sat and acted out more ‘stories’ with the animals, wondering how Marco, who lived his whole life in a ship, knew anything about how the animals moved or interacted. He tired himself out, Valkyr tucking him in, and leaving the Warframe to plan out exactly how he was going to give Marco the only thing he dared to ask for yet: a way to see the worlds.


	4. Maw

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marco and Valkyr discover something about each other. Marco discovers where he fits in the system so far.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this one was unfinished for a long time and I could've swore I updated?? My bad.

A dripping maw of vicious teeth marked with saliva in dripping strands through the narrow slits between. Blood-painted armor hunched over the wheezing body, one of hundreds littered about the crater. The snow already whipped away some evidence, but the growing feeling of panic rose hard in the chest of one alive.

With what would be a comical slowness, the head turned and locked on to that beating heart, jaws splitting apart off the shoulder-neck of one victim before lunging after the new target.

He ran.

Marco never felt need to run from his father, not in all his days of seeing the state he came home in, but after a terrible snowstorm kept them out and corpus flooding the crater they took refuge in…

He went mad. Valkyr shoved him into a tangle of ‘roots’ and under a golden ‘leaf’ and left, and of course Marco stayed as he was taught. Always stay, never peek, never leave until someone trustworthy came to get him.

Overhead he could feel those predatory eyes. Locked tight on his core, right through his ribs to his heart. In all his days he’d never seen Valkyr fight, not in the past two years. Shoot someone, yes, of course, but never use the claws that everyone in Fortuna avoided touching and the Ostrons teased in the shadows light-heartedly to mask fear.

If he’d just stayed, if curiosity hadn’t brought him out of hiding to see what the wet, chewing sounds were…

An echoing cry split the sky, a Sawgaw attracted to the gore and destruction, and that cry was enough to distract the primally driven Valkyr long enough for Marco to slide up the snowy trail out of the Crater and onto his K-drive. He was no expert, and Fortuna was a long way off. Could he even remember the path? And what about all the Corpus?

A low snarl of frustration pushed him onward, jumping on the board and jamming his heel into the lock-and-start. The board lurched forward and kicked up snow, leaving the massacre behind and a roaring Valkyr as well. If intuition was correct his father wouldn’t be able to figure the board out in his current state, and that boded well to getting back to Fortuna. Of course if he took him back there…

The thought of him attacking Eudico, or Biz? He stopped his train of thought and nodded. Biz. Biz could surely tame him, and he was probably out on the Vallis after the storm. He just had to find him.

 

Stovers, said Biz, and so he checked all the caves he knew Biz went inside. Several times he caught flashes of his stalking father, iced over in a coat of red blood ‘armor’ with his teeth still dripping. Marco knew what he ate, asked several times to make sure he wouldn’t feed that to himself. Something heavy knocked him off his board and he screamed, flailing and kicking wildly as teeth closed around his thick coat on his forearm.

“Marco!” Biz shouted, firing several tranquilizers into the side of a Sentinel Stover. The beast dropped to his side and he swallowed hard, starting to hyperventilate on the freezing air. His lungs felt full of ash and dust and he curled into himself as Biz rushed over to gather him up and put him back on the board to examine his arm. “Just bruising.” He looked around. “Where is your… Father?”

Marco began to cry. He promised himself once he wouldn’t do that anymore, but just a few months before eight, he allowed himself to shed tears and reach for Biz. Biz sat heavily on the side of the board with him. “He… He’s coming after me… I didn’t want to take him back to Fortuna, he’d hurt all the people, and I know he hates the caves, so I came to find you, I’m sorry Biz I—”

“He’s gone feral?” Biz stated smoothly, reloading his tranq gun with efficiency and a solid snap. “Well. Do you remember how you caught the Fuming Stover on your first hunt?” Marco nodded. He’d been after Subterranean Pobber, but fate had other plans. “You are going to have to trust my aim, Marco.” A thickly gloved hand patted his shoulder. “Your father told me about this, and how to fix it.”

Marco clasped onto that hand and began to calm himself. Biz always had a level head. With a deep breath he nodded, and looked back the way he came. “He’s real fast. We should… What’s the plan?”

 

Dropping down outside the cave, Valkyr could track this small thing as plain as a black streak on white Orokin flooring. Panicked and smeared footprints in snow and fungal mycelium, the stench of fear in the air… It was an intoxicating combination and he bolted into the cave after this drug. He stooped low to track larger bootprints a minute, then swapped back to smaller ones. They crossed… His prey went through here and met someone.

The head came up and with a vicious snarl he tore off after the small thing’s prints.

 

Marco heard that familiar snarl but had never been on the receiving end of it; empathy for every Corpus surged into him, and he shoved it down as he stood in the open. No sign of Biz, but that was good. Valkyr hopefully hadn’t put two and two together.

As the flash of a red eye whipped around the corner, the boy tucked his hands up to his chest and pulled the coat tight. Nothing could withstand those claws. Nothing lived past his teeth. Valkry was a god in his young eyes, a vengeful one.

“D-Dad?” He called out, the stalking figure not slowing once as he bounded up the chasm. Marco backed up and hopped a stream of coolant, placing himself an exact distance behind it. “I’m sorry I left the hiding spot.” Marco whimpered. “I won’t disobey again.” A howling cry of frustration followed the pop of a dart; Biz hit. Now he’d be after the shooter. Marco hurriedly ruffled through the coat for his own dart gun…

 

The poor being that dare shoot him was going to meet a slow death. Cresting the ledge, he stared down the hall of rock and fungal shelves toward his quarry.

It had a dart gun. The effects of the compound began to root hard in his head, and he shook it out with a parting of jaws. Pink-tinged fluid dropped free, and he gripped one side of his head. When he came out of the episode, the boy leveled the gun with him and in tears began to speak words… What was he saying? He hissed and leaped forward, swaying side to side as another dart hit him in the rear. Two! He knew it! A trap! Valkyr gripped the ground with all fours and pushed himself forward. Cold enveloped his ankles and wrists, a shock to his heated systems, and he pulled a hand up.

He couldn’t. The sticky coolant flow was congealing around his frozen ‘frame. Combined with the drug Valkyr couldn’t break free and fought desperately to break himself away. The screeching turned desparate, trapped, panicked…

Marco and Valkyr became one in the same emotion, different bodies.

 

“Well if you didn’t act like a psycho, Dad, I wouldn’t have to do this!” Marco broke into sobs, and the trapped warframe echoed an angry call off the walls. It faded out and he stepped forward, the rifle shaky but aimed at his center mass. Just like the Stover.

But it wasn’t a Stover, it was his father. Valkyr. Who brought him plushes, and candies, and made sure he was fed and clean. Who bandaged and cared for him in the early days. Who pulled him from the flames…

Valkyr saw that hesitation in his eyes and lunged, still stuck, and flopped down into the pool. The coolant stuck in globs to his chest and neck and he began to labor breaths, wearing himself out hard on the slowly flowing stream. Marco kept the gun level with him. A big hand came to rest on his shoulder. Biz.

“It’s alright. He’s going down with the tranqshots. You did well.” Marco pushed his hand off and still kept it aimed. “Marco—” A shot went off, Valkyr froze, then dropped his head on the side of the flow.

“He was gonna hurt himself.”

“I know.”

“We gotta get him free.”

“We will.”

 

Valkyr came to inside a vent in Fortuna. He instantly smelled Biz and Marco and Eudico, distantly Legs, and further Zuud. He listened to them argue over what to do with Marco in the meantime.

Marco had other ideas, slipping away from the group to make some decisions of his own. Valkyr lay perfectly still other than his head, tracking his son from a distance as he arrived in the vent compartment.

A level stare came from both of them. Valkyr broke off first and let out a depressed sigh. Of course, the boy would fear him now. He began to think of families to place him with, or even others in his clan. But other ‘frames would lead to the same realization.

“’m sorry I shot you.”

Valkyr grunted and bolted around, making Marco flinch. A low rumble after silence; it was fine.

“Were you mad because I left my spot?” A shake of the head. Marco went closer. “Oh.” Silence filled empty space until they choked on it.

He had to make words. For Marco. The drug slowed his racing mind enough to act. “Wassss…” He hissed, getting the boy’s full attention. Words were rare between them. “Hunting…” Valkyr managed, and gestured a coolant-sticky hand off his head. “Losssst contrrrol.”

Marco came forward closer, in arm’s reach but Valkyr did not reach for him. “Does that happen a lot?” Valkyr nodded, then graced him with a hissing ‘yes.’ “Oh. Well. I cry a lot.” Marco sat up next to him. “But you know that. You always fix it.” A low rumbled of affirmation and a side nod. “You’re a good dad like that. I wanna be a good son.”

“Arrre good… Besssst.” Valkyr growled through his teeth. “Best.” He clipped the hiss just for Marco. “Did… Right thing. Prrrotect.”

“I knew if I went to Fortuna, many others might get hurt, and it was so far.” He sniffled. “I was really scared Dad. You really scared me.”

More silence. “Ssssorry.” He managed, then hacked. Talking burned and that fire was aching in his throat. Marco gently touched a semi-clean patch of shoulder, letting him know he could stop.

The boy and the warframe sat like that a long while. Marco finally looked over to him. “Would you have really hurt me?”

“Do not know.” Valkyr felt a pang of fear. “Do… Not…”

Marco felt like he wouldn’t have killed him, looking back. He could have riplined him off the board or paralyzed him. He knew the abilities from the Codex. “I wanna know how to fix that when it happens. There has to be a way to get you to calm down or you’d never come home.”

Valkyr began to peel strips of coolant gel off as he thought. Marco came to help, yelping as the cold touched him. That summoned Biz and Eudico, both armed with tranq guns.

“Marco?”

“It’s okay, Eudico! It’s fine. He’s good now, really. The coolant was just really cold.”

“Use gloves.” Biz advised.

“Biz don’t… Right. Alright, we’ve found ya a home here for a few days. Then Ticker’s gonna do what she does best but in reverse.” Eudico rubbed the back of her neck and lowered the rifle. “Sparky I’m not sure what to do with you. Kid needs a home.”

“I have one. It’s got tons of floofs and a warm bed and food and Ordis and—”

Eudico held up a hand. “Enough’s enough, Marco. A boy doesn’t belong with a Tenno. They lead highly dangerous lives.”

“Like all of you?” Marco shot back, and stuck to Valkyr. Literally. The coolant made it near-impossible to pull away. “Dad?” He called out, and Valkyr began to slide his claws through the sticky web that held them together.

Biz came over to help. “To be entirely fair, Eudico, Valkyr kept his boy safe from an onslaught of Corpus. The scans show at least a hundred bodies, but it is hard to tell exactly where one stops and another starts.”

Marco, once free, continued to help de-coolant his father. “Dad you need a bath. A really hot one, you’re freezing.” Valkyr got up and leaned down, offering his back to Marco who jumped on. As they passed the floor boss, Marco tugged his father’s ‘collar’ to get him to stop. “It’s gonna be okay. I can always call if I need help… He’s okay now. Just… No more trips out that far.” A soft sigh. “Not until ‘m older.”

 

Back on the ship, Ordis fretted about the coolant footprints and bloody mess on his floors and shuttled them off to the washroom. A bath, a deep soak, with Marco playing with plastic animals on the side of the tub while Valkyr stayed crosslegged and sunk down to the midline of his helmet.

Marco stopped after a while to watch him. “Hey dad?” A grunt and he pulled himself up from the water to show he heard. “Can I… See your teeth?”

The request was odd, sure, but he split the jaws open for him. Marco stared at the process, the peeling back of the helmet in two halves to reveal the atrocious jaws. Marco wandered over and looked them over. Clean conical structures with a rounded front and flat back, slightly hooked inwards. Like sharrac teeth. Marco reached to touch one, and Valkyr pulled away as fast as he approached with a finger until he couldn’t any further and had to grab the hand.

“C’mon, you won’t bite.” Marco insisted. “I trust you. I wanna show that things are okay now.” Valkyr slowly brought the teeth together, blocking the razer-sharp edges from small fingers, and let him prod the teeth. “Can you bite through Grineer?” A nod. “Wow. They’ve got tough armor.”

The silence stretched. “Hey dad?” A low grunt, his dad keeping still to avoid harming him. Marco sat back in the water, thinking. “I want to learn to fight too. Nothing big, and I’m still too little for guns and stuff, but you have to have something—Dad?”

 

Valkyr got up, trailing clean water. The mess was long gone after a thorough scrub in the shower pod, this was just to relax. Going out the door, he heard Marco shuffle quickly to grab a towel and wrap it around himself. While he could avoid Ordis’ wrath, Marco could not if he messed up the floors twice in one day.

The arsenal. He felt Marco stop, sitting down the unspoken distance he kept from the firearms and blades and weapons he couldn’t even put a generic name to in that creative head. Valkyr pulled a set of simple knives, Kunai, out of the glowing stream. Ordis never said where they went, and he couldn’t care less. The pouches set on his hips. Going back to Marco’s quarters with them, he snatched up a crate along the way, an old Grineer crate, and broke off the top.

Marco’s curiosity flowed off him in waves, and he began to giggle nervously and excitedly. He rushed to throw clothes on after ruffling himself dry, watching his father set up the metal in one corner of the room far from the glass window.

A sharp strike of metal-on-metal caught his attention. Dead center of the fading Grineer symbol. Valkyr hefted the Kunai for show, and threw a second. It went right to the side of the other, perfectly straight. He looked down to the boy at his side, and out of the pouch, darts. Feathered with Condroc flights snipped short and made out of a beautiful coppery metal, he felt like he shouldn’t be holding them. Valkyr took one from his hand, and after clearing the Kunai with an expert throw of one more, threw the dart. Dead center, piercing into the target.

“Why do I think this means holes in my walls?” Ordis lamented. “If you will allow me, Operator.” The metal was picked up and taken away, probably to be fixed and put back on the crate, while an arm began to fabricate a simple square board on the whole wall. On this, Ordis painted a tasteful overlap of concentric circles on the inside, bordered by two overlapping squares. It looked like a flower! “Does this please the Operator?”

Valkyr nodded and nudged Marco. Was it his time to shine? Marco hefted the dart as he’d seen his father do with the Kunai, and found it heavy on one end and light on the other. His little knowledge of different planets and their gravities made him think it’d curve down. Marco tried to take the stance Valkyr had, and threw the dart.

It hit. Not the center, but inside the first ring. He beamed excitedly, but frowned as Valkyr handed him another dart. If he was to keep up with his father someday…

He let the dart fly, getting just a hair closer. “Practice makes perfect, Dad.”

Valkyr said nothing, and left him with the rest of the darts and a pat on the head.


End file.
